Video: Krista Smith Interviews the Black Swan Company

The season’s most anticipated (and only) dark ballet thriller, Black Swan, opens in theaters today and is already a frontrunner for Oscar and Independent Spirit Award nominations. The film has been on Vanity Fair’s radar since it took Toronto by storm in early September, where West Coast editor Krista Smith interviewed star (and best-actress hopeful) Natalie Portman, director Darren Aronofsky, and actor Vincent Cassel. View Smith’s interviews below.

Natalie Portman

Portman talks with Smith about the intense training process that went into her role and what she wasn’t allowed to eat during filming.

Darren Aronofsky

Aronofsky’s last film, The Wrestler, wowed audiences and earned Mickey Rourke an Oscar nomination for best actor. Smith talks with the director about how a performance of Dostoyevsky’s “The Double” inspired Black Swan.

Vincent Cassel

Cassel plays the ballet company’s vain and demanding director in the film, and Smith talked with him about the hierarchy of the dance world, his time as a young ballet dancer, and the madness of Portman’s character, Nina Sayers.